Yellow Ostrich formed in a Wisconsin dorm room in early 2009 as the solo recording project of Alex Schaaf. Over the course of the next year, Schaaf released six albums and EPs, including three EPs in August, 2010: Fade Cave, The Morgan Freeman EP, and The Serious Kids EP. Alex relocated to New York City in the summer of 2010, recruited Michael Tapper (We Are Scientists/Bishop Allen) to play drums, and began to play locally in New York City. The Mistress, Yellow Ostrich's debut LP, was released in October. After significant grassroots support and acclaim for the album, Afternoon Records (Pomegranates, Haley Bonar, John Vanderslice) picked up the record and is reissuing a remastered version on February 2011.

Niki and the Dove is a band from Stockholm, Sweden with two members, Malin Dahlström and Gustaf Karlöf. Getting together in February 2010, Malin and Gustaf have spent the time since writing together, figuring out just how pop music works and then discovering new ways to break it.

Their first single "DJ, Ease My Mind" b/w "Under the Bridges" released on leading UK independent Moshi Moshi, was one of the most striking debuts of the year, catching the attention of everyone from Artrocker and NME through to The Sunday Times who declared the single could "be the two greatest alt-pop songs of 2010." And if "DJ, Ease My Mind," revealed a band with a precociously fully-formed sound, their self-released follow up "Mother Protect" shows that Niki and the Dove are truly poised for great things. A riotous collision of barely constrained electronic pop overlaid with Malin's distinctive, glacial vocals, "Mother Protect" confirmed Niki and the Dove as a truly unique talent and ones to watch.

Despite being only available through the band's website, "Mother Protect" was heavily supported by the likes of John Kennedy on XFM, Radio 1's Annie Mac (who played the track during both her specialist evening and daytime shows), NME, The Observer and The Independent who said the track "grows brilliantly into a low-key epic."

Niki and the Dove's songs are full of magic and light but with an unsettling darkness hidden beneath the surface. It's pop music but a world away from the production line aesthetics of much modern chart music.